Product Positioning Exercise

Overview and Objective

Welcome to the most controversial phase of a product
positioning. (Ok, it really is the second most
controversial - naming is the most controversial.) There will always be
a pull from two different extremes when you are talking about
positioning. There are those who want/need the company/product to
sound like "the next big thing". This type of positioning
will be broad and complex. Then there are those who actually have to
sell the product or service. They want a positioning that is narrow and clear.
If you are a small boot-strapped company, the narrow and clear positioning
is critical to your success. If you are a venture-funded or very large
organization, the broad and complex positioning may be required to get the
attention of the right people. This document only deals with the
narrow and clear positioning due to the personal bias of the author.

Who Should be Involved

Positioning should be a formal exercise, no matter
how large or small the organization. If you are discussing company
positioning, it should involve all senior management. If it is product
positioning, it should involve representatives from Sales, Field
Engineering, and both product marketing and marketing communications.

The Product Positioning Exercise

A meeting or conference call with all parties
involved is critical. Ideally, everyone should be in one room with a white
board or large tablet to keep track of ideas and thoughts. It is also
important that everyone have a say and that the highest-ranking person does
not dominate the meeting.

Before Getting Started

Everyone should attend the meeting prepared to
discuss your customers. If you don't have enough data on the
customers, who they are and why they bought, then discussions with the
customer must take place first. If you don't yet have customers for
the product then you need to come prepared with market research and market
validationinterviews with potential customers. If you haven't talked
to your customers (existing or potential) then the meeting is a wasted
exercise. If there is a current positioning for
the company and/or the product, you ideally want to forget your existing
positioning during this exercise. However, that positioning was
probably developed through trial and error, so the background for the
positioning should be used, but it is important for people to try to think
beyond the current positioning.

The Objectives

The objective of the meeting is to reach agreement on the following
definitions. In all cases, it is easy to start broad and then narrow
the focus through elimination.

Define the primary customer - It is a good idea to start
broad and then narrow it down. It is important to note that your primary customer may be the same or different from the person who is using the product. For example, in enterprise software, you have many users, but your primary customer is the person driving the purchase of the product. But if you are a web 2.0 site, your primary customer is your users, even though your advertisers may be paying the bill.

Define
the problem - What is the problem you are solving. What is the real
area of pain for the primary customer listed above.

Define the secondary problem or other symptoms of the problem -
A significant problem will have an impact in multiple areas. List all
the areas affected by the problem and how they are affected.

Emotions - List the emotions of the customer as they think
about the problem. What is the primary emotion associated with the
pain?

Market characteristics - Breakdown the characteristics of
your primary customer. What do they buy? How do they buy
it? What are their hot buttons? What do they worry about when
they think of their competition? What keeps them up at night.

Channels - Describe the other companies that the customer
works with in solving similar problems. Decide if these companies are
good partners for you. What is their primary business? How are
their sales people compensated? What is their biggest pain at this
moment. What can your product offer them?

Elevator pitch - Describe the customer, their pain, and how
you solve it differently then anything else on the market. Provide
just enough information for the listener to want to know more. Target
the message to your primary customer and bring their emotions into the
pitch.

Competitors - List your competitors and their strengths and
weaknesses in comparison to your offering.

The Process

Start the meeting by sharing the most
current discussions with customers and potential customers. Anyone who
has had these conversations, whether they are formal market research, or
casual conversations, should share that information with the rest of the
group so that everyone has an equal understanding of the target market.

Walk through the nine objectives above,
in the order they are listed. Again, start broad and narrow the
objective down by the process of elimination.

Generally, by then end of the meeting,
everyone should feel like the exercise was worth while and that they have a
new focus for their job. If this is not the case then additional
market validation should be done and the group should reconvene.

What Do You Do With the Results?

The elevator pitch
should be distributed to the entire company and everyone should use it when
discussing the offering. If this is a company positioning, the message
should be incorporated into the home page of the website, datasheets, and
the corporate background collateral. Strengths over the competitors
should be emphasized in the product literature and on the website.

After several months
of using the new positioning, review it with management and customer facing
individuals. Find out what works and what doesn't work. Decide
if it needs to be updated with new competitive information or new direction.

I also found "Words that Work" by Dr. Frank Luntz to be a great book on messaging. You don't have to like his politics to find value in his ability to simplify a message and create wording that resonates with the masses.

Lastly, I have created a binder with some positioning resources off of the web: